Playing tour games on Indian pitches is irrelevant: Smith

Sydney, Jan 31: Former Australia skipper Steve Smith says his team is better off training on its own rather than playing tour games on “irrelevant” Indian pitches ahead of the four-Test Border-Gavaskar series.
Australia have decided not to play a single tour game in India during the month-long Test series, primarily due to the hosts serving up green tops for practice matches and spinning tracks for the actual games.
Smith, who won the country’s best men’s player award for the fourth time in his career on Monday, said nets sessions would benefit his side more than tour games.
The 18-member squad, led by Pat Cummins, had a pre-series camp on spin-friendly tracks in Sydney and will have a week-long stint in Bengaluru before the first Test in Nagpur from February 9.
“We normally have two tour games over in England. This time we don’t have a tour game in India,” Smith was quoted as saying by news.com.au on Monday ahead of the team’s departure to India.
“The last time we went (to India) I’m pretty sure we got served up a green top (to practice on) and it was sort of irrelevant. Hopefully, we get really good training facilities where the ball is likely to do what it’s likely to do out in the middle, and we can get our practice in,” said Smith, who beat Travis Head and David Warner to win the Allan Border medal on Monday.
Australia have been criticised for not including tour games, which are an integral part of a long series, in their itinerary. But Smith said rigorous nets sessions will help spinners train better.
The Australians had a training session in Sydney last week on pitches that had significant cracks to replicate Indian conditions. (PTI)